$6 Time Travel

Some thoughts while visiting Tryon Palace

on a warm spring day

and sitting alone in the gardens.

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$6 Time Travel

Today I crossed the road and entered a world different than my own

– a world of brick and of fire and of iron.

I walked the deserted pathways of some colonial mansion,

resting at last on a low stone bench

surrounded by high brick walls,

and shaded by looming birches.

Wind devils scattered leaves,

bringing scent of sweetshrub and creeping phlox,

and causing a twitter in some nearby thicket.

An orange cat shared his space with me,

rousing only to stretch and yawn.

Straining my ears, I just made out

the gurgle of a fountain or the blows

of the blacksmith as she beat out nails and hooks

from red-hot metal on her anvil.

How much would one pay for such release –

for a few hours’ respite from the world –

to step back & breathe the air of different times,

to unplug from the digital consciousness

and become analog?

. . .     . . .     . . .     . . .

Today it cost six dollars.